Products that include images are a popular keepsake or gift for many people. Such products typically include a picture taken by an individual that is inserted into a product intended to enhance the product, the presentation of the image, or to provide storage for the image. Examples of such products include picture albums, posters, picture calendars, picture mugs, picture ornaments, picture mouse pads, and picture post cards.
Images can also be combined with other images, for example templates including background images and one or more image openings into which an individual's image can be inserted, either mechanically or electronically with a computer, to form a combined image that displays the individual's image in a pleasing or preferred manner. These image products can be provided in hard-copy form, for example as a printed photo-book, or in electronic form presented by a computer, for example in an on-line album. Imaging products can also include multi-media products, especially when in electronic form, that, for example, can include motion image sequences or audio tracks.
Selecting suitable multi-image and multi-media product designs can be a daunting challenge for users, particularly when the products include personal images. In particular, combining personal images with pre-existing products can pose challenging aesthetic issues. Software tools that execute on computers can assist users in designing customized multi-image products. Such software products can execute, for example, on home computers. Alternatively, on-line design and printing services accessible through an internet browser interface can assist users in designing and printing a multi-image product.
Such software and internet design tools can enable users to position personal images or other multi-media elements in a multi-image product, such as a photo-book or collage. For example, users can drag-and-drop image icons into openings in a visual representation of a multi-image product to specify the multi-image product, for example as is done in the on-line image printing business of the Kodak Gallery. However, such an approach to designing a multi-media image product can be very difficult, as a very large number of different layouts are available and selecting from among them can be tedious, time-consuming, and anxiety-inducing for a user. Alternatively, software and internet design tools include automated layout software that will position a user's images in various locations in a template without intervention, as is taught for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,340,676.
Automated selection and layout methods, however, do not always select the best or preferred layout for a product as desired by a user. Manual selection and composition can be extremely tedious. The computational requirements for compositing or demonstrating user images with image products can be large, degrading the interactivity of the operations. Furthermore, it is difficult to display and compare a large number of customized choices.
There is a need therefore, for an improved method for selecting image products customized with user images.